An Illawarra mother who slapped her five-month-old baby in the face, leaving him swollen and bruised, told police she took her frustration at her partner out on their son. Police were called to the West Wollongong premises on March 3 by a concerned neighbour who had told the triple zero operator “I can hear a woman sobbing, a woman shouting, something that sounds like slapping, there’s a little baby in there about four or five months old.” Officers arrived at the house shortly before 9pm and were greeted by the woman’s agitated partner, who accused her of assaulting their son. “She’s hit my f—king son, she’s inside chief, I didn’t do anything, go look at his face,” the man told police. Officers discovered the child inside in his mother’s arms. He had a swollen eye and a red mark running along the right side of his face. The woman blurted out an immediate confession: “I’m sorry, I slapped him in the face, he won’t sleep and I get no help….don’t take him from me.” Officers immediately removed the child from the home. He was taken to hospital for assessment and is now in the care of Family and Community Services. Meantime, police arrested the boy’s mother and charged her with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. In an interview, she told officers she had been home alone trying to do some washing and her son wouldn’t calm down, so she slapped him once to the face with moderate force. “I just, I think I took out on him what I wanted to scream at his sperm donor of a father,” she said. The woman pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in Wollongong Local Court this week. Two other offences – neglecting to provide medical aid to a child and contravening an apprehended violence order – will be taken into account at the time of her sentencing, which has been set down for November in Wollongong District Court.

Wollongong mum admits slapping five-month-old son in face

An Illawarra mother who slapped her five-month-old baby in the face, leaving him swollen and bruised, told police she took her frustration at her partner out on their son.

Police were called to the West Wollongong premises on March 3 by a concerned neighbour who had told the triple zero operator “I can hear a woman sobbing, a woman shouting, something that sounds like slapping, there’s a little baby in there about four or five months old.”

Officers arrived at the house shortly before 9pm and were greeted by the woman’s agitated partner, who accused her of assaulting their son.

In an interview, she told officers she had been home alone trying to do some washing and her son wouldn’t calm down, so she slapped him once to the face with moderate force.

“I just, I think I took out on him what I wanted to scream at his sperm donor of a father,” she said.

I think I took out on him what I wanted to scream at his sperm donor of a father

Mother's interview with police

The woman pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in Wollongong Local Court this week.

Two other offences – neglecting to provide medical aid to a child and contravening an apprehended violence order – will be taken into account at the time of her sentencing, which has been set down for November in Wollongong District Court.